NEW YORK -Warren Buffett's new philanthropic alliance with fellow billionaireBill Gates won widespread praise this week, but anti-abortion activists did not join in, instead assailing the two donors for their longtime support ofPlanned Parenthood and international birth-control programs.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to which Buffett has pledged the bulk of his $44-billion fortune, devotes the vast majority of its funding to combating disease and poverty in developing countries. Less than 1 percent has gone to Planned Parenthood over the years.

"The merger of Gates and Buffett may spell doom for the families of the developing world," said the Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, a Roman Catholic priest who is president of Human Life International.

Referring to Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi death camp doctor, Euteneuer said Buffett "will be known as the Dr. Mengele of philanthropy unless he repents."

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America issued statements praising Buffett and Gates for their generosity. Gloria Feldt, a former Planned Parenthood president, said she was appalled by the harsh attacks on them.

"What an outrage that these people have the gall to cast aspersions on other citizens for standing up for what they believe," Feldt said Thursday. "They have no right whatsoever to criticize people who put their money where their mouths are."

The foundation founded by Buffett, and now named after his late wife, Susan, came under fire from some anti-abortion groups in the 1990s after it gave $2 million to fund clinical trials of mifepristone, more commonly known as theRU-486 abortion pill. The foundation also has supported various abortion-rights and family-planning groups, and Susan Buffett was eulogized after her death in 2004 as a champion of women's reproductive health.

Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, wrote a commentary this week holding the Buffetts partially responsible for the approval of RU-486 in 2000.

"Since then, approximately 500,000 American babies have been killed with RU-486," Perkins wrote. "Buffett's billions have the potential to do damage like this on a global scale."

Staff at the Susan T. Buffett Foundation office in Omaha, Neb., said its executive director, Allen Greenberg, would have no comment on the criticisms.

The Gates Foundation also is a patron of reproductive-health programs, funding research on new contraceptive technologies and initiatives to improve access to birth control.

Planned Parenthood, which is the leading provider of abortions in the United States, has received $34 million from the Gates Foundation over the years — out of a total of $10.5 billion in grants worldwide, according to foundation spokeswoman Jacquelline Fuller. She said the foundation does not fund abortion services, earmarking the grants for other Planned Parenthood programs.

Joseph D'Agostino, a spokesman for the anti-abortion Population Research Institute, said the foundation position "is simply dishonest."

"Abortion services are the primary mission of Planned Parenthood," he said. "If you fund one side of an organization, that frees them up to transfer funds to the other things they do."

Feldt confirmed that the Gates Foundation stipulated that its gifts to Planned Parenthood not be used for abortion services. But that policy has not spared Bill Gates' Microsoft Corp. from anti-abortion protests over the years.

At the 2003 annual shareholders meeting, anti-abortion activists cited Microsoft's support for Planned Parenthood during an unsuccessful attempt to stop the company from directly contributing to charities.

Beyond the issue of abortion, some critics oppose the Buffett and Gates foundations' support for global family-planning and population control programs.

"Some of the wealthiest men in the world descend like avenging angels on the populations of the developing world," wrote Population Research Institute president Steven Mosher, a frequent critic of Gates and Buffett. "They seek to decimate their numbers, to foist upon vulnerable people abortion, sterilization and contraception."

Omaha Red Sox wrote:Would you rather your daughter be screwing a bunch of hillbillies wearing rubbers or not having sex at all?

Teach your child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from you.

Adoption>Abortion

nobrainer

Agreed adoption over abortion.

Is planned parent hood an abortion agency? I always thought they were adoption.

I don't get it.

A building that surrounds itself with a defensive barrier does not promote the more logical of the two choices. If a teenage girl walks into Planned Parenthood, the first pamphlet they give her is the abortion one. Then they encourage her to keep it from her parents.

Omaha Red Sox wrote:Would you rather your daughter be screwing a bunch of hillbillies wearing rubbers or not having sex at all?

Teach your child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from you.

Adoption>Abortion

nobrainer

Agreed adoption over abortion.

Is planned parent hood an abortion agency? I always thought they were adoption.

I don't get it.

A building that surrounds itself with a defensive barrier does not promote the more logical of the two choices. If a teenage girl walks into Planned Parenthood, the first pamphlet they give her is the abortion one. Then they encourage her to keep it from her parents.

Why exactly do you believe adoption is better than abortion?

IMO the abortion adoption debate doens't focus on it being a living being or not.

I just think its emotionally easier on the mother to give up the baby in adoption.

However, I am pro choice.

i don't know anything about planned parenthood haven't had to make a trip there yet

Ward Churchill said that the victims of 9/11 deserved to die and called them little Eichmanns. Adolf Eichmann was in charge of sending millions of Jews to death camps. I don't see the connection and I think his comments were totaly off base.

Rev. Thomas Euteneuer refers to abortion pretty much as murder in the name of "medicine" which is pretty much what Dr. Mengele orchestrated and is pretty much what abortion is.

The other issue here is that, as they have always done, women ALWAYS have a choice.

Whether the citizens of the country want the choice to be safe and legal or shady or under the counter or whatever is a question that, oddly enough, rarely appears in the debate. It's really more of a public health issue than a 'moral issue' about scaring teenagers away from playing booty roulette. For every 100 teenagers who do get scared away b/c the option is removed, there will probably be 500 illegal abortions done. I hope that they can find a safe way to do that...